Crutchlow on bad luck thus far with Ducati

Ahead of the important Gran Premio d'Italia TIM weekend for the Ducati Team motogp.com spoke exclusively to Cal Crutchlow about his results to date with the Italian brand.

Having joined the Borgo Panigale manufacturer for the 2014 season, his campaign thus far has been blighted by technical issues and injury - following a crash at the Circuit of the Americas which subsequently kept him out of the Argentina race.

As he continues to recover from the hand injury he suffered in Texas and as he further adapts to riding the evolving Ducati GP14 prototype Crutchlow expects to see his results – and luck – improving.

The Englishman was 11th at Le Mans last time out and aims to build from the base having finished the race for the first time since Qatar, where he was sixth.

Speaking exclusively to motogp.com on Wednesday evening at an Alpinestars event in Italy, Crutchlow said, “I think we’ve had bad luck. You can’t imagine how many times my guys (crew) have said to me we’ve never had this bad luck. At the start of the season with regard to electronics stuff, the tyre in Texas, the crash when we returned to the track due to something else, then I had to miss Argentina and then the brakes failed at Jerez. So we haven’t had the best luck at the start of this season.”

He continued, “I give 100% every time we go on the track. Yes, I’m still riding injured as such but we are better than what the Ducati was last year and my guys are never giving up. We went to Le Mans and at least we finished the race. We weren’t too far behind Andrea (Dovizioso), though obviously he was a lot quicker in the practice and qualifying, but that’s just the way it is. At the minute I don’t feel comfortable on the bike but when I do I think we’ll be challenging as best as we can.”